Wednesday, June 21, 2017

A distant second...

George Abdill; This was Railroading, Bonanza Books 1958

The last spike ceremony of the Grand Trunk Western took place on April 7, 1914 at Milepost 1327.7. It appears to have been a pretty simple ceremony. The CPR had been completed to Vancouver in 1887 and although there was a lot of the country without railway service no transcontinental competitor had appeared till the GTW was chartered in 1903. Construction started in Winnipeg in 1906 and by 1912 had made its way to Edmonton. From there it continued into the Rockies through Fort George and on to Prince Rupert. The company struggled along till it was taken over by the Canadian government in 1920 and has operated since as the Canadian National.